I think if DRM didn't exist piracy would be just as rampant (i.e. not very, since for the average joe it seems more convenient to just go on netflix or amazon prime or whatever) and people would still get paid.
People are against DRM not because they don't want to pay for content, but because they want to be able to play the content they pay for. And not in breach of the license they have been sold.
I have every interest in participating in the content market and paying people to make content. I have no interest in having to buy special proprietary hardware or run special proprietary code on my computer just to do it.
But someone needs to pay to create those things in the first place. Payment for work after the fact is the basic incentive.